Drew B's take on tech PR

The Guardian Blog

Cool to see The Guardian's Online Blog take a comment of mine on board about PDA vs Filofax, and add a few links to their story. Thanks Vic!

PR isn't keeping up and I have proof!!

I have started to notice an increase in people arriving here through having done a web search on, well, all manner of things from Gmail invites to BMW to PR in Europe. I think that is a bit strange. Surely there are companies who would actually care about ranking highly in such searches and have something more to gain out of it. Surely they would be doing something PR related about this? I thought they might be up there with their optimised sites and paid-for ads. But I'm still surprised by how heavily bloggers are shaping the online media landscape with their rantings, and how these comments are coming out in searches.

BL Ochman says: "Advertisers including Paramount Pictures, The Wall Street Journal, and The Gap are successfully reaching niche audiences for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising and a handful of bloggers are earning six-figure incomes from their blogs. Why aren't more advertisers and bloggers getting together?" That's good to see, but those firms she mentions are ahead of the pack, obviously.

I was chatting with a friend the other day, who couldn't believe how highly blogs rank on web searches when some many firms pay for Search Engine Optimisation. He said his firm pays thousands a month for SEO when most bloggers pay between nothing and a few quid, which he found crazy.

Then I started noticing how some of the stories on my blog, including the one on BMW, rank pretty high on Google when you type in BMW PR. That can't be good! Surely you should get BMW's press office, not someone like me observing the way in which online PR is changing the way in which we communicate with one another!

How about when bloggers read a book then slate it on their blog? Would that also end up ranking high on web searches? Well the answer is yes, because that's happening already to. I believe not enough PR, marketing and advertising people in Europe understand the power that blogs wield in the online media landscape, and they mostly don't know how to begin to control that landscape.

I will watch the evolution of blogs' use in online PR, marketing and advertising with keen interest as I continue trying to figure it all out myself.

Crazy Trans-Dniester

I saw on Ben Hammersley's excellent blog that the BBC has visited Trans-Dniester:

Vladimir, Smirnov junior, is football crazy. He decided, a few years ago, that Trans-Dniester - where average per capita incomes are less than $550 (£300) a year - needed one of Europe's finest football stadiums.

And here it stands - outdoor and indoor pitches, a hotel, enough training grounds to stage a mini world cup - all unused for much of the time.

"These people are crazy," repeats Georghe.

You're telling me! Great article by Kieran Cooke.

Forrester blog by Charlene Li

An analyst at Forrester, Charlene Li, has started a blog. She says that it is Forrester's first blog, as pointed out to me by Steve Rubel.

Charlene Li oversees the operations at Forrester's San Francisco office. Her research patch is marketing trends, search engine marketing, media site design, local media, social networking, blogs, RSS, politics, online recruitment, and consumer portals.

A good lesson for PRs attempting to target the blogosphere can be gleaned from Marc Canter's blog. He rightly points out that if you are trying to tap into blogs, you need to start a blog! How true.

Only by experiencing what it's like putting together and running a blog can someone understand how to get issues, stories, and news covered on inlfuential blogs.

Other stuff including Steve Rubel's thoughts on reaching influential audiences through blogs, Dana VanDen Heuvel's blog and Fredrik Wacka's commentary on press releases vs blogs, and Robert Scoble's lesson about how Kryptonite went up in flames because of information spreading un-managed on blogs, all show how PR and blogging are so closely linked yet so different.

Thanks to Media Guerilla for the link to Marc Canter.

New UK tech PR blog

Have noticed a new UK tech PR blog authored by MD of a London PR and marketing firm, called View from Object Towers. Author, Andrew B Smith says he thinks he has come late to the blogging party. You're not late really, Andrew.

PR blogs and scaremongering

Interesting arguments going on about how people on blogs are impacting traditional communications and business at Scoble and Michael Gartenberg (Jupiter), courtesy of the v v good Media Guerilla. I'm reading with keen interest here, as I do find this of great importance to PR, although when Robert Scoble says: "almost every time I meet someone, I ask them "do you have a weblog?"..." I wonder how that could ever happen!!!

Google search - Gmail invite

What's this about Google desktop search? Looks like it does the job but don't see why I should install it. I can do a search already. Haven't read up fully on it yet though, so may give it a go. BTW Just two Gmail invites left..... so get in touch by email or comment if you want one.

Daily Mirror tech experiment

I have read that The Daily Mirror is going to be conducting some research into peoples' dependency on technology. The research looks like it will be over one month and focus on one British family. Look out for the findings late in November.

Radio 1 tech coverage

I heard a teaser on Colin Murray's afternoon show on Radio 1 today, saying that he was going to be broadcasting a technology segment. I hadn't heard Colin do anything like that before - so wondered what would be coming up. He did a piece on 'robots' and gizmos like Data off The Goonies (!?) and his gnashing teeth and slick shoes. Great stuff.